Gender Gap in Political Giving

by Zach Holden | 2014-08-07

Looking at legislative rosters and gubernatorial portraits, it’s clear that women are underrepresented in state politics. Despite making up half the population, as of 2014 women only account for 24 percent of state legislators and 23 percent of state executive officials. Although there is room for debate over the origins of this phenomena, our examination of all state campaign finance data from 2009-2012 reveals an interesting parallel--the top male donors to state candidates, parties and ballot measures are outgiving their female counterparts by nearly a 3-to-1 ratio.[1]

A recent collaboration by Politico and our sister organization, the Center for Responsive Politics, found that the top 20 female donors to federal elections so far in 2014 had been outspent 6-to-1 by the top male donors. Inspired by that study, the Institute compiled data on the top 20 male and female donors to state campaigns during the last four year cycle for which we have complete data, 2009-2012, and found the men out-giving the women 3-to-1. While this suggests that state politics may have a smaller gender gap, it’s important to note that this figure is driven in part by robust giving by top female donors to ballot measure committees. When only contributions to candidates and political party committees are considered, the top men out-gave the top women by almost the same 6-to-1 ratio found in federal politics.

It’s worth noting that the top men and top women are not operating in a vacuum, oblivious to each other’s activities. There are five cases where husbands and wives both appear on the list, one case of a mother and son both making the list, and the top donors are a pair of siblings.

Top 20 Male and Female Contributors to State Candidates, Parties, and Ballot Measure Committees, 2009-2012

Top Men

Top Women

Munger Jr, Charles Thomas

$78,384,181

Munger, Molly

$43,642,449

Steyer, Thomas Fahr (Tom)

$37,145,500

Walton, Alice Louise

$2,916,075

Joseph, George

$10,792,500

Messinger, Alida Rockefeller

$2,198,580

Perry, Bobby Jack (Bob)

$8,581,700

Perry, Doylene

$2,061,400

Perenchio, A Jerrold (Jerry)

$6,008,713

Cummins, Joan

$1,438,600

Sinquefield, Rex

$5,582,706

Adelson, Miriam Ochshorn

$1,225,000

Templeton Jr, John M

$3,411,275

Bloomfield, Margaret M

$1,180,000

English, Stephen

$3,276,300

Doerr, Ann Howland

$1,074,900

Lewis, Peter B

$2,934,231

Lowell, Charlotte A

$956,251

White, Dean V

$2,933,000

Cofrin, Gladys G

$792,400

Eychaner, Fred

$2,726,825

Humphreys, Ethelmae

$747,700

Sussman, S Donald (S D)

$2,668,810

Earhart, Anne Getty

$647,100

Simmons, Harold Clark

$2,064,100

Devos, Helen

$603,150

Humphreys, David Craig

$2,620,400

Wyckoff, Ann P

$601,850

Oberndorf, William E (Bill)

$2,582,110

Hendricks, Diane M

$541,200

Devos Sr, Richard M

$2,231,900

Schmidt, Wendy

$539,300

Stryker, Jon L

$2,185,290

Ballmer, Connie E

$531,925

Singer, Paul E

$2,008,845

Bezos, Jacklyn G

$531,000

Butt, Charles C

$2,007,596

Fisher, Doris

$525,570

Adelson, Sheldon G

$1,926,550

Binder, Katherine

$514,495

TOTAL

$182,072,532

TOTAL

$63,269,945

The unifying quality of both the top men and top women is their intense interest in ballot measures. The men in question donated nearly $145 million to ballot measure committees, representing 79 percent of their total giving, while the women contributed more than $56 million, which is 89% of their total donations. There is a still a significant gap here, with the men out-giving the women by nearly a 3-to-1 ratio. It’s notable, however, that their relative parity in this mammoth arena of giving strongly influences the final ratio between the genders in that it obscures the degree in which the top men out-give the top women to candidates and party committees. These men gave nearly $17 million to political parties and nearly $21 million to candidates. The top women gave less than $3 million and less than $4 million respectively.

The top women and top men also differ in their partisan behavior. The top men are consistent in their giving to both party committees and candidates, donating around 80 percent of their contributions to Republicans in both cases. The top women, on the other hand, are more ambiguous in their partisan character. About 75 percent of their contributions to party committees went to Democratic parties, while 88 percent of their candidate contributions went to Republicans. This party inconsistency is partially driven by the ideological diversity of the top the female donors--Doylene Perry contributed nearly $1.5 million to Republican candidates, making up 40 percent of the total candidate giving, while Alida Rockefeller Messinger gave a little less than $1.8 million to Democratic party committees, more than half of all giving by the top female donors to party committees.

The total contributions gap shrank from about 5-to-1 in 2010 to nearly 3-to-1 in 2012, although there is inherent difficulty in comparing midterm election years to presidential years. Further complicating matters, the 2012 elections had a number of high profile ballot measure battles, setting records for fundraising around ballot initiatives. If the fact that top women gave nearly 90 percent of their contributions to ballot measures is reflective of an inherent quality of these top donors, rather than statistical noise, the tightening of the gender gap in 2012 could thus be attributed to these divisive ballot measure battles. The real question is whether the full 2014 data, when collected, will trend toward greater balance and if there will be any tightening of the ratio concerning candidates and party committees.

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